Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Bell Jar

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

2210 reviews

najahmou's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

krihoj's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

asparrow29's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

hannahsheil's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

Content Warnings

josiemeyer's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Content Warnings

namedconquer's review against another edition

3.5

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think the writing is simple yet so beautiful. She so accurately captures complicated emotions.

I must say I found the book to be very sad and that never quite goes away. I suppose that is also an accuracy for a book about depression.

This also complicated my feelings regarding the protagonist Esther who from the beginning is not established as entirely likeable especially in comparison to the women that surround her also going through similar difficulties. I did enjoy many of the side characters.

There is a glimmer of hope at the end I guess but it didn’t make me feel good once I put the book down - perhaps because this was semi-autobiographical and we know unfortunately Sylvia Plath is no longer with us.

No doubt the story is most powerful for it’s realism. There is no forced optimism or hectic sensationalism and for that I am grateful to have been immersed in a story that has unlocked a much more empathetic and true understanding.

Content Warnings

vintagelace06's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

amanda_y8s's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

finally got around to this classic (from my doppelgänger!). Read as part of the StoryGraph “Read What Your Have Challenge” for January, the prompt being based on a great first sentence.

The sentence: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”

Content Warnings